


I'd (Not) Trust You to the Stars

by britishparty



Category: The Yogscast
Genre: I can and I will, To Infinity!, what do you mean I can't put Lalnable in everything
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 07:16:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,404
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5488466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/britishparty/pseuds/britishparty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Captain Sounds of the U.S.S Infinity hires a new crewman, but something in his expression makes him just a tad difficult to trust.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I'd (Not) Trust You to the Stars

**Author's Note:**

> Yogscast Secret Santa present for nanos-noodle-bar. Merry Christmas to you and to your friends & family! I hope you've been enjoying To Infinity as much as I have, because this story is my gift to you!

The new crewman came on board at port with - with a  _ swagger _ , if the captain was to be perfectly honest.

Of course, boarding on foot was only a common courtesy for a new addition to the crew. Normally, too, there would be more crew to greet him, but, well, her crew had never been the most friendly of people. If anything, they’d have been more likely to come along if she’d asked them to intimidate him and put him in his place.

Putting him in his place might be a little more difficult than the captain had anticipated, as was evident from his appearance. The way he walked was so entirely overconfident that she just itched to punch him in the face, and she realized that if she didn’t, her crew definitely would. She’d even bet a hundred credits it’d be Sarah who tried first. Then she glanced at his face again, and  _ ooh _ she just wanted to do it.

So before the new crewman even stepped foot on her  _ Infinity _ , she decked him.

 

“There are nicer ways to greet a new crew member,” he told her later, when she’d dragged him into the infirmary. He hadn’t said anything when she’d hit him, just a quiet, “Ow.”

It was as he said it that she got the impression he was used to this.

“Yeah,” the captain said, and shrugged. “If I hadn’t done it, someone else would’ve.”

He eyed her curiously. “Is your crew that unruly?”

“They’re not unruly,” she snapped before her medic could respond. “We don’t take well to newcomers.”

The crewman grinned at her then, wide and honest. “Nobody takes well to me.” The synthetic patted at his face with ice, and he grabbed the pack and flashed Bishop a smile. “Thanks,” he said, and held it over his swelling eye.

“Why ice?” He asked quietly her as Bishop wandered off, returning to his organization. “You have the new medbay upgrades, right?”

“Yeah,” the captain said, and shrugged. “But if we heal it now, you’ll probably get punched by someone else.”

“Real friendly crew,” he said, and grinned at her. “Nano, isn’t it?”

“Captain Sounds,” she corrected, and led him towards the helm. “Your name’s LividCoffee, right?”

“Lalna,” he said. “I got Livid from my dad, Coffee from my mother, and I don’t get along with either.”

“Crewman Lalna it is,” Nano decided. “You’ll be a fielder, as I’m sure you know.”

“That’s what I signed up for,” Lalna said.

“Hal,” the captain commanded into the air, “open the new quarters.”

A cube materialized in the air, staying at eye level a foot from her face even as she stalked down the corridor. “Quarters are open,” came the response, and the - the eye? the eye on the box - swung around to run a brief scan over Lalna before spinning back to her. “Give Crewman LividCoffee access to area 12?”

“Yes,” she said, “and change the register from LividCoffee to Lalna.”

“Change made,” Hal answered, and dematerialized before them.

“Area 12 is your quarters,” she told him, not even sparing him a glance as they walked. “You have the basic access for a new fielder, which includes the majority of the ship with exceptions to other quarters, the armory, infirmary, engine room and communications. Those you can only access with another crewman.”

Lalna eyed her curiously, trying to make sense of the blank expression on her face. “Why are so many places restricted?”

“We have a tighter security than normal for new guys,” she answered, and he caught the flicker of something in her eyes. “We hired someone called Hector before you. He murdered three of our crew in their sleep with our own guns before we got him in lockdown. He then used medical supplies he’d stolen to kill himself before the authorities got to him.”

The name seemed familiar, as if he’d heard it somewhere before, but he ignored the feeling and mumbled something in agreement. Neither of them were even listening to him, and she turned sharply off the main hall. A door hissed open just in time, and it was then that Lalna realized these quarters had just been reopened after a long while.

“New quarters for the new crewman,” the captain said wryly. “I tried to move Sarah in here, but it’s the farthest room from the armory, so she refused. No one else wanted ‘em, so they’re yours. I’ll be at the helm if you need anything. We’re planning to be at port for another day if you have anyone to say goodbye to.”

“Nope,” he responded cheerily. “Just me.”

“Then good day, crewman,” Nano said, and offered him only a small smile before turning to go.

The door was barely closing before an engineer appeared, grabbing at the captain’s arm. Lalna couldn’t help himself; he went over to the door and listened.

“...don’t want him here, you know that, all respect, captain.”

“He’s here on my terms,” Nano snapped, her voice sharp. “He works for me, Scotty, keep that in mind - and so do you. Hector was - Hector was  _ wrong _ , we need to work past him. I need a fielder to help me.”

“Swap one of the others to field,” the engineer’s voice said, “and get rid of him. He looks like Hector, walks like him too. We won’t be able to trust him, Sounds.”

“Hal,” the captain called, and Lalna heard the cube appear, “run checks on Crewman Lalna’s background. Cross-reference all similarities and possible contact with deceased crew member Hector, Lalnable.”

Lalna heard the way she spat “crew member,” as if she hated to even refer to him as part of their ship. Who was he? Why did he know him?

And then he remembered. Hector,  _ Lalnable _ Hector. He’d worked under him for a time, as a bounty hunter. At one point Hector messed up, and Lalna had been the first person he’d thought of when he needed to disguise himself. They’d gotten comments that they were similar, too, before the change.

It had been disorientating, to have his boss suddenly reconfigure his face to look like Lalna’s, his voice to sound like Lalna’s, but at the time, he hadn’t minded. It had helped Hector, and Lalna was suddenly in much better standing with a very strong - if unethical - fighter.

“Contact found,” announced Hal. “Deceased crew member Hector, Lalnable employed Crewman Lalna approximately fifteen years ago - exact date of contraction and resignation unknown. Hector was believed to have disguised as Lalna for the last two years of his seven-year employment. An estimated eight years after the resignation of Lalna, Hector began a contract with Captain Sounds of the _U.S.S._ _Infinity_ , and killed-”

“That’s enough, Hal,” Nano interrupted. “Thank you.”

“Now do you believe me?” The engineer, Scotty, asked as Hal dematerialized. “He knew Hector. We can’t trust him.”

She sighed, and Lalna froze. She wouldn’t kick him off, would she?

“No, we can’t,” she muttered. “Fine. I’ll limit his access even more. The only place I refuse to restrict is the helm.”

“We spend so much time there,” Scotty protested. “That’s where the warp point is, too. What if he sabotages it?”

“I’ll take a chance, and that’s it, Scotty,” Nano said firmly. Her voice left no room for argument, and Lalna could hear the glare in her words.

There was a pause, and Lalna knew that the engineer did  _ not _ want to agree, but he could already tell that Nano got her way on this ship.

He forced himself away from the door, heading for the console against the wall and opening his account. These consoles were wired into the whole ship, displaying public records, private accounts, and the general background for the ship and its crew.

Lalna pulled open his permissions. He’d gotten used to being restricted - people with bounty hunter backgrounds typically were - but even more limits were appearing as he scanned through them. Area 11, 17, 18. He pulled up the map even as he watched the numbers appear. A spare room they’d refitted to be a lounge, the ship’s core, the online servers.

At this rate he’d be  _ glad _ if they assigned someone to babysit him. At least then they could let him into all these restricted places - but as he watched, some restrictions tightened even more. Only engineers could let him into the engine rooms, only technicians could let him into the core and server room - all, of course, under the captain’s careful control.

She was a good captain, he’d give her that. It was obvious that her crew respected her, that she protected them, and that she was the king here. She ran her ship with a hand of steel and a hand of gold; she seemed to care in the “rough-n-tough” way Lalna hadn’t seen much of in all his ventures.

A call flashed briefly on his screen, and he tapped it without even thinking. It was Nano, and he could hear the hum of machines and quiet chatter of other crew members in the background.

“Crewman Lalna,” she said, and the voices fell silent, “come meet my family.”

“Aye aye, cap’n,” he replied jauntily, grinning at the small box. “Do I have the freedom to get from here to there, or do you need to send someone to help me through security?”

There was a hushed breath from someone in the background, but Nano laughed. “Get your ass over here, recruit.”

And she hung up.

Lalna laughed then, at her brazen reaction and at his own temerity. He’d expected to get yelled at, not laughed at. He dropped his backpack on the ground, ignoring the mess of cloth that spilled onto the floor, and headed for the helm.

The  _ Infinity _ had the basic layout of an active 2-28 ship, and he’d been on one for a while a few years back. Two right turns, a sprint, and a left brought him quickly to the helm, where Nano was talking idly with someone sporting the symbol of a lieutenant.

“You didn’t get lost,” she greeted him, sounding mildly pleased. “That’s a first for a new recruit.”

“I know ships,” Lalna said, and grinned. “Yours is beautiful, too.”

If him not getting lost had pleased her, that made her delighted. “Of course she is,” she said, and clapped her hands together, turning her back on him.

“Crew!” She called, and they rose slowly, individually, to look at her. “We’ve a new addition in our midst, for the first time in a year and a half. This is Crewman Lalna, acting as my field backup.”

No one said anything, just stood and stared. No one even looked at Lalna; their gazes were cold, and he could sense the hostility seeping from them.

“O-kay,” the captain said slowly, “obvious question time. He looks like Lalnable Hector, who I doubt any of you have forgotten. Why?”

As one they swung towards him, and Lalna had never,  _ ever _ wanted to run away this much. Their eyes were like spears, their thoughts singular and angry and they terrified him.

“I worked for him,” Lalna managed, “eight years back, and he stole my identity, and changed himself to look like me. I don’t expect to be trusted. That’s fine. I’m fine with that.”

Nano grinned at him. She seemed to be the only one not on the verge of shooting him.

“Let’s give him a chance,” chimed in a redhead from behind one of the consoles. “Zoey Proasheck,” she introduced herself. “Communications. If you ever want to drop by and talk, say the word and I’ll clear you.”

“Lalna, fielder,” he mumbled, staring at her with wide eyes. “Thank you.”

“We’re leaving port early,” Nano announced to fill the gap. “I’ve gotten word from an  _ unreliable _ source that ruins from the Nova have turned up in a far-out system. We’re already fueled and supplied up, so unless there’s any objections, we’ll go early, once we’ve got clearance.”

Slowly, again, one by one, they sat. Once they were all settled, all of them but Lalna, Nano grinned at him.

“Zoey,” she said, but didn’t take her eyes off him even as the redhead looked up, “run our departure by the port. Inform them we’d like to leave as soon as we can.”

There was a pause, during which Nano turned back to the main console in the center of the narrow helm, and then Zoey called to her, “Clearance received. We have ten minutes to get out of port airspace before someone else is coming in.”

“Five’s all we need,” she said, and called her crew to work.

 

It was thirteen days later that they arrived in the system Nano’s source had told them about. For Lalna, it was thirteen days of dissent, cold-shouldering, and speaking only with Nano and Zoey. Zoey was perhaps more friendly than Lalna would’ve expected - she smiled and laughed, and though sometimes he could see Hector’s shadow in her eyes, she treated him like himself.

It was better than the others.

They treated him like he  _ was _ Hector, like he’d murdered their crew and ripped them apart. Nano told him not to bother with them, that they’d get over themselves, but Lalna still worried. What if something happened? The engineer and his assistant avoided him like he was poisonous, one of the two lieutenants pretended he didn’t exist, the two other fielders purposely shunned him, and the technicians shrank away like he would lash out at any given moment.

Right now, the only place he really felt safe was in the communications room. Zoey was there, and the few times other people had come in and challenged his being there, she’d shoved their complaints straight back in their mouths and pushed them out the door.

“Hal, open scanners,” Nano called. The crewmen flooded the helm, settling beside their respective positions. Lalna took up his place just behind Nano, towards the main console and the corner of the room. Zoey sent him an apologetic glance, heading out for the comm room.

“Surface of Beta Murray II acceptable for human life,” announced Hal. “The gravity is slightly lower than that of the ship, but it shouldn’t interfere with any equipment.”

“Sarah,” the captain called, to where she stood at the doorway to the helm, “bring us standard field equipment?”

“Two sets?” Came the response, and Lalna didn’t have to look to know she was staring at him.

“Two,” Nano said firmly, and Sarah grumbled something and left. “Crewman Lalna and I will be going down first. We’ll send a comm link up to Zoey once we’ve accessed the situation.”

“Alone?” The lieutenant was the first to speak up, voicing the crew's objections in a single word.

“Not alone,” the captain corrected him, “I’ve got him.” And she nodded towards Lalna.

“I’ll be watching them, Lloyd.” Zoey’s voice came from the speakers, cutting off any argument. “Trust me, if Crewman Lalna harms her in any way, he is not boarding this ship again.”

The steel in her voice terrified Lalna, but it seemed to soothe the other crew members. Even Sarah looked slightly more pacified when she returned, slung with guns and swords and a few pieces of lightweight armor.

She dropped it all on the floor, and at Nano’s request, began to help Lalna into it. He wasn’t used to the near flawless joins in the armor; she slid every piece carefully into place, fastening them, and stepped back. Nano gathered up her guns, slinging them into place with the ease of long practice.

Lalna picked up the first gun carefully, cautiously. He knew how to equip them, of course - but so long around a crew that feared him made him fear himself.

What if he  _ was _ like Hector? What if he did lash out at them, either accidentally or on purpose? Would he be able to stop himself? He honestly didn’t know what he was capable of anymore; the crew’s fear had infected him, until he began to see Hector in himself.

“Are you alright?” Came a soft voice, from another lieutenant Lalna hadn’t seen much of.

“I’m just -” he started, and then swallowed with some difficulty. Why was he so  _ scared _ ? It was just a  _ gun _ . He’d done this before, so many times. It was then that he looked up, and saw himself mirrored in so many eyes. They watched him like hawks, eyes upon the gun and upon him. In some he didn’t even see his own reflection, just Hector.

He  _ wasn’t _ Hector. That was the only thought that let him pull the strap over his head, let the gun settle heavy on his back.

The tension drained from the room at once, and if Lalna hadn’t known better, he would’ve thought Nano looked - looked  _ pleased _ with him. The pistol and the second lightweight gun were easier to lift, as if it was so much easier to remember how he'd done this before.

“You're fine,” Nano said softly, so just he could hear. “I trust you.”

_ Trust _ was not the right word, and they both knew it, but it was what Lalna needed to hear. The sword was easier to pick up, and he spun it between his hands, feeling for its balance and its weight.

When he looked up, the sword clattered to the ground as his hands froze. One of the crew members - a woman, a pilot - was staring at him as though he were about to kill her.

He'd learned the trick to balancing swords from Hector. He cursed even as he made the connection, realizing the dead bounty hunter must've done the exact same thing.

“I - I'm sorry,” he blurted out, starting to shrink in on himself. He didn't even bother to go pick up the blade, staring at its dull purple sheen in shock.

Zoey’s voice came over the speakers, low and gentle.

“I know what you're seeing,” she told them softly. “It's alright. He doesn't expect you to see past it. It's alright, it doesn't matter anymore, Hector’s dead. He’s not Hector.”

“Well said,” Nano agreed quietly, but when Lalna turned to her, there was fear in her eyes, too. Less fear than the others, but she still couldn't forget either.

“Crewman Lalna,” she said. “Pick up the sword. It's a bit archaic, but it's what we do here.”

Lalna lifted it up gingerly, touching it as little as possible as he slid it into his belt hook. He tried not to look at any of the crew members as he turned to the console.

“Hal, Crewman Lalna requesting warp down to Beta Murray II.”

“Will Captain Sounds join you in the warp?”

“Yes,” Nano said, turning away from her crew and looking towards the screen. “And prepare for an emergency return warp for one.”

Lalna glanced sharply at her.  _ Trust _ , he thought, and when she returned the gaze, there was no apology there.

“Warp established. Inform Communications when you plan to return. Good luck, Captain Sounds, Crewman Lalna.”

Lalna was halfway through asking, “Good luck?” when they dissolved in a shower of orange.

 

Beta Murray II looked similar to the majority of other human-inhabited planets. It had thick vegetation - blue, here - trees, water, and cloud cover almost equivalent to Lalna’s home planet.

Nano jumped experimentally. She was eye level with Lalna at the height of her jump; the gravity was only a little weaker than human standards.

“The Nova ruins were supposed to be just east of this landing point,” she said. “It's been a while since I've gotten my hands on anything Nova. It's more valuable lately.”

“How do we know if there's anything hostile out here?” Lalna glanced around at the dense underbrush. Sure, he'd been a bounty hunter, but they tended to stick to inhabited planets. It was treasure hunters like Nano and her crew who wandered off to strange, alien worlds for precious materials and forgotten technology.

“We don't,” she said simply, and smiled at him. “Scared?”

“Yeah,” he said, and grinned at her in return. “Never stopped me before.”

Nano began to move then, heading east with a directional accuracy that surprised him. He followed at her heels, feeling for all the world a small puppy in a foreign place.

He was startled by a flock of blue-green bird-bat-moth things that bolted out of the treeline to their left. They flew up in panic, screeching at the most ungodly pitch. Lalna stopped to watch them, and Nano stopped to watch the trees they'd flown from.

A large golden ostrich - was it an ostrich? - erupted from the undergrowth, screaming and charging at them. Nano pulled Lalna neatly out of the way as it thundered past.

“Guess we've found our hostiles,” she muttered softly. “Come on, we should almost be there.”

The ruins came into sight - they were a group of buildings, worn by weather and time, made almost entirely from stone and metal. The roads were copper, and their boots clanked against the sun-warmed tiles.

“What are the Nova?” Lalna asked, voice hushed.

“We're not sure,” Nano said. “We know that they have a terrible memory, and they keep changing their technology every couple of centuries. Honestly, we don't know how they achieved space travel at all, but their ruins are scattered across the universe.”

Lalna reached up to run a hand the smooth metal walls. Everything was warm - not hot enough to burn, but just too hot to be enjoyable. Perhaps the sun here was what had kept the metals from rusting and corroding? Or maybe the Nova had built this town with corrosion in mind and had taken measures to prevent it.

They turned on to what Lalna could only guess was a main square; yellow-gold liquid ran from a turquoise fountain, still in almost-perfect condition like everything else. The buildings that lined the square here were more open; shops, perhaps.

“What are we looking for?” Lalna asked quietly.

“Something valuable,” she said, and grinned. “I mean, if the place is made of metal, surely they’ve gotta have precious gem or an artifact or something.”

“Or something,” he repeated blankly.

“This isn’t bounty hunting,” she reminded him. “We don’t know what we’re getting till we’ve got it.”

“Suddenly, I’m struggling to recall why I  _ left _ bounty hunting for this,” Lalna muttered.

Nano glanced sideways at him. “Your boss died?”

“Oh.” Lalna paused for a second, trying to pick up his thoughts. “Yeah. That.”

She snorted at him, and at his sudden bewilderment. “Cheer up, I’m not about to point any guns at you.”

“You’re about the only one,” he muttered.

Nano laughed at that. “You had a fun two weeks aboard my  _ Infinity _ , didn’t you?”

“It’s about as fun as it’ll ever get.” Lalna refused to meet her eyes, instead turning away to head for the large, domed building that seemed the most important.

He was so concentrated on not looking that he missed the funny-shaped tile in the even patterns of copper plates. His boot didn’t clank when he stepped on it; that was what tipped him off.

The tile was soft underfoot, and as he shifted his weight backwards, the world shifted with him. Dark, light - a face, a cry, and then more dark. Lalna hit the ground heavily, his vision blurring and his eyes watering. He’d fallen down a - a pit?

What  _ was _ this? Something was off - he wasn’t hurt, that wasn’t it, his landing had been cushioned somehow - but he couldn’t figure out what it was. He’d triggered a trap of some kind, he knew that much.

“Lalna?” Nano’s voice called down, faintly, from above. He stabbed the comm button on his port, but the connection crackled with static, and promptly died.

“I’m okay!” Lalna yelled in her direction, trying to sit up. His head was light - the gravity was less here, he reminded himself. He felt dizzy and discombobulated, but he couldn’t feel a single scratch on himself so far.

The sound of a call drew his attention even through the haze, and though Lalna glanced down at his port screen, Nano was the one receiving the call.

“Captain,” came Zoey’s voice, barely distinguishable from the distance overhead, “is Lalna alright? Hal lost all of his vital signs a moment ago. Do you need extraction?”

“It’s fine, Zoey,” Nano said. “The crewman - he stood on something, I think, and now he’s fallen in a ditch. Can you really not get any of his vitals?”

“Negative, captain,” Zoey reported dutifully. “Can you open a vidlink so I can see?”

“Give me a sec, I’m getting bad connection too,” Nano muttered, and then a light shone down into the pit. “Can you see?”

“Barely,” was the response, and in the dim light Nano provided, Lalna could just make out the walls of his prison.

He seemed to be in a box, made of dulled silver-bronze metal. It was odd, he thought faintly, for all the other metal to be so clean, and this so scratched and rough.

“Crewman LividCoffee?” Zoey called, her voice strangely shaped by the room and the vidlink from Nano’s port. “Lalna? Are you okay?”

“Fine, I think,” he yelled. She seemed satisfied with this, muttering something to Nano, at which point the light vanished and he was plunged into darkness again.

Their conversation went on above his head, and Lalna was more than happy to ignore them in favor of looking out for himself.

This was hardly a great start to treasure hunting - at this rate, he might just see how he could do at solo bounty hunting. He was sitting here, in the dark, with no comms and no clear way out - not a very good situation, albeit the fact he was relatively unscathed.

Lalna punched a few more buttons on his port, and the room lit up. It looked like a dungeon from the VR sims he’d been fond of a long while back. There were runes of some kind engraved in one wall - all completely meaningless, or so he quickly decided - and although the rest of the walls were smooth, he noted that they all slanted towards the double iron doors at the bottom of the room.

This trap had probably been of the chute variety, at least before the alien moss had gotten hold of it - in the weirdly white fluorescent light, it was apparent that the blue moss had grown over the stone slope where Lalna had landed, and saved him a lot of pain.

He stood up carefully, tense and winded but unhurt. The moss wasn’t exactly slippery, but now that he was standing it was a lot harder to keep his balance.

“Crewman, stay where you are!” Nano ordered. “Do not move from your position. Hal is attempting to reestablish connection.”

“There are doors,” Lalna called up in lieu of an answer. “I think there’s something hidden down here.”

“It’s a trap, Crewman,” she snapped, and when he looked up at her she was all rigid form and bossy commander. “There’s a high chance that whatever’s behind those doors isn’t safe.”

“But there’s a chance it’s valuable,” he said, crouching as he ignored her voice and drew closer to the doors. “Run the numbers by Hal if you don’t believe me.”

She didn’t call for Hal, meaning that she very evidently knew it could be valuable. “You’re not allowed to die on your first field mission, Crewman Lalna. Be careful.”

The doors swung open perhaps too easily, and Lalna passed out of earshot of her voice.

The chamber in the next room was equally dark, and when Lalna cast his light over the ground, he could only see a flight of descending stairs.

He headed downwards.

 

“Captain, it’s not safe,” protested Zoey, eyes soft with concern even through the patchy vidlink. “We don’t know what’s down there.”

“Give us time,” Nano said. “One days, ship time. If we’re not back in one day, attempt to activate the emergency warp and, failing that, send a rescue team. If you don’t find us within three, assume the worst.”

With that, she fastened her winch into the ground and dropped down into the darkness. The vidlink paused just after she passed below the edge, a little circle wheeling over Zoey’s panicked face before announcing that the connection had been lost, and the comm closed.

Nano slithered down the walls to come to a halt on the moss. She tested it, then unfastened the winch from her belt and left it hanging. She slid her port into her belt and switched on its flashlight, drawing her sword in her free hand.

“Lalna?” She called. “Crewman Lalna, answer if you can hear me!”

“Captain?” Lalna’s voice came from beyond the open doors. “Why’re you down here?” His port light flashed, and he appeared in the doorway. “I thought you were staying on the surface.”

“Can’t let a scrub like you run around down here alone,” she said, and grinned at him. “Come on, let’s go find whatever’s down here.”

“Well, there’s stairs,” Lalna said as they headed downwards. “And after the stairs, there’s -” he swallowed, pausing a few stairs from the bottom, “- this.”

A narrow, winding path stretched off into the distance. That wouldn’t have been so bad if not for the fact that beyond the path, there was only a drop into nothingness.

Nano laughed, more out of nerves than anything else. “Afraid of heights, crewman?”

“Yes,” Lalna said. “Yes, I most definitely am.”

“I left my winch hanging in the pit if you want out,” she said, and grinned at him.

Her steps were steady, unfaltering, as she wandered off on the winding path built just a few feet above oblivion. She half wanted to call behind her and tell him to get a move on, but she knew saying something like that would just be tempting fate.

“Oh god oh god oh god this is  _ not _ what I signed up for,” came the quiet voice from behind her, and then the clank of heavy boots on stone told her that her crewman was following loyally at her heels.

He’d let himself be pushed into things. Nano stored that away, in the corner of her brain she kept just for her crew. It was a little log; how certain members of the crew dealt with fear and panic and responsibility. It was almost funny to realize she’d already made a space for Lalna amid the information already stored there.

When she came to a fork in the path, she realized that this wasn’t just a road above oblivion; it was a maze, too. The realization triggered something in the back of her brain; it was familiar, almost, like she’d seen it before.

“Why did you stop,” came Lalna’s voice, “oh god, why did you stop? Do we have to go back? Do I have to turn around?”

“It’s a maze, crewman,” Nano said calmly. “Are you any good at mazes?”

“No,” he whimpered, and moaned. “Why a maze? Why a  _ maze _ ?”

“I’m going right, you go left,” she said.

“Why left?” He groaned.

“Because I know I’m right,” she tossed over her shoulder, grinning as they wandered farther from each other into the darkness.

“That wasn’t even good,” he called from across an indistinct distance, and then they fell quiet, concentrating more on their steps than their words.

Nano found dead end after dead end, until she spun her light down and found herself back on the fork she’d last seen Lalna on. The darkness down here was weird - it was almost foggy, and though she thought she could see Lalna’s light illuminating a little patch of ground a little ways off, she wasn’t sure.

“I found the exit!” Lalna called, light flickering up from the ground to shine briefly in her direction.

She started after him carefully, eyes trained upon the ground until the narrow walkway widened into a low platform. “Well done, crewman,” she said shortly, and he beamed at the slight praise.

He responded well to compliments. She tucked that away, too, and began to move further from the maze, into where she could see steady, thin light.

They came out into a room, small and dimly lit. Lalna was only too happy to put the walkway behind them, but Nano walked carefully.

The floor was gravel. The walls were smooth, no dents or bumps, nor even join lines to separate the metal tiles it had been built out of.

Set on a low table at the back of a room, a small ring of stone sat. It was dusty, as if untouched, and when Lalna picked it up, it glowed brightly, in blues and greens and reds and oranges. It was like an intricate pattern, lines running all across it in perfect ninety degree angles.

“What do you think it is?” He asked softly, turning to face Nano. It was roughly big enough to slip over her wrist, and not as heavy as it should have been if it were stone.

“Valuable,” she said, and took it from him. She turned it over, feeling the curious lines, the smooth metal-stone-something of the gray exterior.

Again, something was familiar, like the maze had been. Nano couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew she'd seen this somewhere before - in a dream, perhaps.

Enough of that. There had to be a way out.

A door - or a panel of some kind, at least - was trapped behind the table. With Lalna’s help Nano lifted the heavy wood and moved it aside, running her fingers over the places the panel met the wall.

Her palm found a dent, just big enough for her hand. She pressed on it, and the panel caved, crumpling under the force like tinfoil until she could ball it up and toss it to the side.

It opened into a vent, just big enough to fit through. Nano eased her head out and up, turning to look at Lalna.

“Seems safe enough,” she said, and gestured for him to go first.

Like a loyal dog he obeyed, dropping to his belly and sliding forward into the gap. His voice echoed strangely off the metal lining as he called back, “There's a turn, and then I think it swaps to stone rather than metal. I’ll check.”

Nano waited, holding her breath as she listened to his progress. She almost jumped when she heard rocks rolling, stone scraping against stone as she could only assume the tunnel collapsed inwards.

“Crewman LividCoffee!” She yelled into the vent, trying desperately to keep the fear out of her voice. “Lalna! Are you okay? Dammit, Lalna, answer me!”

There was silence for a few moments, and then a shifting of rocks.

“I’m alright,” he called back. “It opens out here, from what I can see. It’s kind of dark, but I can see sunlight up ahead.”

“What was that?” She snapped, finally releasing the breath she’d been holding in an annoyed huff.

“A trap. It made the walls collapse in. I was big enough that there’s a gap you can get through, I think, but it’s small,” he told her.

“Will I fit?” She paused, waiting for an answer.

“Yes, barely.” Lalna sounded hesitant. “But it’s jagged, and your armor and weapons will catch.”

So she’d have to leave them behind. Easy enough; hopefully this ring was worth more than enough credits for replacement gear.

But - unarmed. Unarmed with Lalna, Lalnable’s trainee.

“Trust,” he said, oh so quietly, from the other side of the vent.

That didn’t help at all. No matter Lalna sounded nervous; no matter he’d been kind and careful and he was everything Lalnable wasn’t; he spoke with his voice, he looked with his eyes, he walked with his walk.

She’d shot Hector.

Nano slid the guns from their holsters on her back, slung off piece after piece of impervium armor and let it fall to the ground. It felt wrong, to be planetside without any weapons, but she unfastened the catches on her belt and let all the weapons and their holsters fall to the ground.

Did she trust him?  _ Could _ she?

No, she didn’t think she ever could.

Nano dropped to her stomach, sliding forward onto the cool metal. It was easy to move at first, the smooth surface beneath her making it easy to maneuver. She reached the rock soon, with much less noise than Lalna had made; and then it was more of a dragging motion than a sliding one, pulling herself forward over loose stone and crumbled rock.

“Where’s the gap?” She called.

“You should be almost there,” Lalna said, and he sounded close. “Try feeling up.”

She did, and there was a patch where the tunnel almost ended, where it sloped up. The ceiling scraped against her back and rocks tumbled down the front of her shirt, and for one terrifying moment she thought she was stuck.

Lalna’s hands closed around her chest, just under her armpits, and he pulled her up and out. It was lighter here, with sunlight coming from some chink in the stone ceiling up ahead.

“I almost thought you wouldn’t come,” he said quietly.

“So did I,” Nano responded briskly, and reached for her port on her hip.

It wasn’t there. She reached instead for Lalna’s, and he handed it to her without argument. The little white light blinked on, and they headed up a low ramp towards the sunlight.

“Is this it?” Lalna said, disappointed, as they neared it. 

The small gap in the ceiling was barely enough to see through; all they caught sight of was a patch of blue and a chink of the reddy-purple sky beyond it. It seemed to be enough, though; Lalna’s port flickered to life as he took it back, and Zoey’s voice crackled through it.

“Crewman LividCoffee! We’ve picked up your vital signs. Where -” and then she crackled out in a buzz of static.

“What was that, Zoey?” He asked, whacking his hand against the side of it. “The connection’s bad.”

“Where’s the captain?” She demanded, her face appearing in the mess of static on the port screen.

“Here,” Nano said, pulling the port from his hands to grin at Zoey. “Can you warp us out?”

“We only set up an emergency warp for one person, Captain,” Zoey reminded her. “We’ll warp you while we lock down Lalna’s coords.”

“Pull Lalna first,” Nano ordered, suddenly all rigid back and commanding pose. “With my ranking, Hal will establish a link faster.”

“Negative, Captain,” Zoey said. “Your vital signs have still not returned, and Hal needs to confirm your safety before Crewman Lalna can return.”

“What kind of stupid programming is that?” Nano snapped. “I didn’t put that in.”

“No, Captain, Scotty did,” Zoey responded, and Lalna see her already working to open the warp link. “Warping now.”

Nano looked like she was about to protest, but she was cut off as she began to break up, and Lalna was forced to look away from the bright orange light that engulfed her.

When he looked back, she was gone, and his port with her. Lalna sighed, and stood, and waited.

And waited. Did it normally take this long to pull a crewman out?

It took them twenty minutes - Nano counted - before Hal managed to establish a strong enough connection to pull Lalna out. Lalna himself was just happy to not be planetside anymore, but Nano went off on a horrible tangent about loyalty and trust and honor. When she was done with that, she hunted down Scotty, had a fight the whole ship heard, and when she was done with  _ that _ , she went to go find Lalna.

By this point, to escape all the commotion, Lalna had gone to his quarters. He seemed much less bothered by this whole warping business than Nano, who was determined to make anyone involved pay.

“... I can’t believe anyone would just let it  _ happen _ . I mean, sure, you look like Lalnable, but  _ really _ ? I thought my crew were better than that. I’ll have to make sure they remember not to go against  _ my _ word again.”

“Nano,” Lalna said, and his voice was soft. They were sitting opposite each other, at the uncomfortable chairs squashed around the little table in the side of his room. “It’s okay.”

“No,” she began, “it’s not  _ okay _ , I’m going to make them know it’s not  _ okay _ . That’s the point. You’re a part of our crew now, like it or-”

Lalna cut her off quietly. “I’m leaving once we reach the next port.”

Nano stopped, her mouth open as she tried to think up a response.

“No,” she said finally. “I won’t let you.”

“You don’t have a choice,” Lalna said, and added suddenly, “Look, Nano, your crew doesn’t want me here. They don’t trust me, and with this face, they never will.”

“I’ll make them,” she snarled savagely. “I’m not giving you up, Crewman Lalna.”

“I have the rights to end the contract,” Lalna hissed.

“You’re on my soil, Crewman, and you’re staying here,” Nano growled. “I’ll keep you here with force if need be.”

Lalna snorted. “You couldn’t,” he said, and he sounded scornful.

“Try me.” Nano was on her feet in an instant, fists balled in fury and eyes narrowed.

“Gladly.” Lalna rose slower than she did, more calculation in his movements. The way he held himself, preparing to dodge or pursue, was so similar to Lalnable that Nano lunged before she’d even considered it.

Lalna, for all his words and all his posing, was caught entirely off guard when she came at him. Her hand connected with his stomach before he could react, and he stumbled back, gasping for breath and staring at her from where he’d bent at the middle.

“Already?” Nano crowed, grinning, but Lalna lashed out quicker than he should’ve been able to, his ankle catching on the back of her knee and bringing her to the ground.

Nano grunted as she hit the floor, already twisting to spring to her feet again. Lalna jumped on her before she could, slamming one hand into her jaw with as much strength as he could muster. Her head snapped sideways, and she used the motion to wriggle out from under him, up and away and already prepared to go again.

“More than that,” she taunted, eyes flashing, but she could feel that the sore spot on her jaw would bruise a nice shade of purple.

Lalna threw himself at her, fists and feet and fury ready to go.

 

It was nearly an hour later when Lalna first came skulking into the medbay. Already he had bruises forming on his face; one eye was swelling up from a well-aimed fist, and his skull felt dented from all the times he’d gotten knocked down. His legs may well have been pulp for how steady he felt, and Bishop didn’t say a word as he wobbled - trying to saunter and failing miserably - towards one of the beds and sat down altogether too hard on it.

“Who’d you fight?” The synth asked, his programming making him probably the only one not treating Lalna with more-than-necessary hostility.

“Er - the captain, actually,” Lalna said, talking carefully so as to not aggravate his swelling face.

“Ah, the newcomer’s usual,” Bishop responded, the words altogether a bit too mechanical to be any comfort. “Welcome aboard, Crewman Lalna.”

Before Lalna could respond to that, Nano wandered in. She looked for all the world still a jaunty captain - her face was bruised just as heavily as Lalna’s, but she wore the swelling marks like a prize.

“Captain, Crewman Lalna has informed me of your physical dispute. Would you like the injuries to bruise?”

“Only a few, Bishop,” she said, and grinned. “Leave ‘em where they show, and heal ‘em if they’ll get in the way. Should help shut the others up about him not being a decent crewman.”

“Affirmative,” the medic responded, and headed back for the crates of tidy medical supplies all along the wall of the medbay.

“So, crewman,” Nano said conversationally, as if they hadn’t been beating each other black and blue hardly five minutes ago, “will you stay?”

Lalna hesitated. He certainly had ample cause to leave now; an abusive captain, malicious crew, bad history with crew members - but it was difficult to picture himself leaving and never regretting that choice.

“Sure,” he said, and grinned. “What’s the worst that could happen?”


End file.
